


technicolor endings

by dreaminginside



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, M/M, Princes & Princesses, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-06 08:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15882279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreaminginside/pseuds/dreaminginside
Summary: Jongdae thinks it's a bit unfair that out of all the princes and princesses in existence, he's the one that has to earn a happy ending.





	technicolor endings

**Author's Note:**

> This is for prompt #119! "fairytale au!~ prince jongdae fell in love with the witch instead."! And I hope that the prompter and at least someone else likes it just a little bit, I'm sorry it got a bit away from me! HUGE HUGE thank you to the mods for being so patient and understanding through my extension requests and general floundering, and also everything else you guys do for this fest;; also thanks to k for reading it over for me and all my other friends that put up with my general whining. I hope it's at least a little enjoyable!!

At this point, Jongdae thinks that Baekhyun only manages to do his job well purely by accident.

This time, he saves Jongdae from having a rather sharp knife be an accessory in his skull by way of tackling him to the ground in an attempt to wrestle Jongdae’s own dagger out of his hands so that he could have a turn with it. Jongdae thinks it’s only marginally better than the week before when they spent so long bickering over who would get to eat dessert first that Jongdae’s taster landed face down in his cake.

It’s all getting a little old honestly, especially considering he has no idea _why_ anyone would want to kill him. He’s not even the first heir to the throne, it all feels a bit spiteful.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me,” Jongdae groans, looking up to where the knife is buried in the wall with some amount of exasperation, rolling out from under Baekhyun as the guards posted in the halls scramble to find the assassin responsible. “This is third time this month!”

“Only you would be so blasé about attempts on your life, I swear,” Baekhyun says with a huff, yanking the knife out of the wall, getting a good grip on the hilt before dragging Jongdae down the corridor behind him. “You’re lucky you have such a good personal guard like myself to keep you alive, Jongdae.”

“Barely, it’s all been by accident so far,” Jongdae says and grins a little bit, because riling each other up is honestly what he and Baekhyun do best. There probably is something to be said by how unaffected he is by attempts on his life at this point, but Jongdae is just trying his best to take all of it in stride. princely dignity and all that. “Are you the one hiring all these hits? I think you were at risk of being demoted to Royal Best Friend up until my birthday passed and all this lunacy started.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Baekhyun says, checking that the coast is clear before turning to flick Jongdae on the forehead, ignoring the ensuing whine in favor of pulling him to the east wing, and Jongdae aims a kick at Baekhyun’s shin in retaliation. “Come on, you know we have to tell your parents, _someone_ needs to look into why everyone wants to kill you before I have to wrap you up in pillows and blankets in case a spy disguised as a servant tries to push you down the stairs.”

“Don’t talk so loud, you’re probably giving them ideas,” Jongdae laughs slightly, because what can you do really. This is probably just something that comes with the territory of being royal, but he can swear that Jongdeok never had to go through this at his age. Probably too busy wooing princesses and slaying monsters, as his parents are generally eager to remind him of while Jongdae has all of zero impressive feats and adventures to his name. The curse of being the youngest in your monster slaying family. “I’d expect you to break my fall if I did end up rolling down the stairs, though. I think it’s in your official duties.”

Baekhyun makes a rude gesture behind him as they come to a halt in front of his parent’s room, sliding the knife into his belt and knocking on the door twice before announcing them as they walk in. Somewhat rude as per usual, but Jongdae knows that Baekhyun may as well be the third prince for how long they’ve been together, attached at the hip practically since birth.

“Another attempt on Jongdae’s life, Your Majesties,” Baekhyun announces without preamble, dragging Jongdae in behind him as the King and Queen simply blink at them. Jongdae wonders if his near death experiences are so bland at this point that they don’t even warrant exclamation, but some concern would be appreciated here. “I know the first three times could be a coincidence, but I really think we should do something about this before we have to go to the trouble of a royal funeral.”

“Oh yes, god forbid you have to mourn me,” Jongdae rolls his eyes, resolving to be The Bigger Person and not respond in turn to Baekhyun’s punch on his shoulder. Mostly because one hit tends to lead to them brawling around on the floor, and his parents have scolded them more than once for it as boys, so he doubts it would be appreciated as grown men.

“Oh, we were afraid of this,” His mother sighs, and Jongdae’s eyes narrow, because this sounds an awful lot like they already knew this kind of thing was coming. Being royalty really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. “We were hoping that maybe the curse skipped you and that the assassination attempts were simply work of our enemies, but the frequency and inability to track down the assassins seems to point towards the family curse.”

She shrugs in a way that seems to say _what can you do about it_ and Jongdae snorts, everyone really is too blasé about his possible death, maybe Baekhyun was right. Then he frowns, because what kind of luck does he have if he’s supposed to be _cursed_.

Cursed and having to admit Baekhyun is right about something? It really is a Monday.

“Oh no, that stuff isn’t supposed to be real, curses and all that are supposed to be reserved for fairy tales only,” Jongdae groans, because he had kind of hoped to avoid all of the stereotypes of royalty here, but it seems to have been a lost cause. Baekhyun snickers, and Jongdae doesn’t resist kicking at his ankle this time. “You didn’t think it would be important to tell me that I was cursed?”

“Well it isn’t just you, it’s everyone in the family line,” His father says patiently, and Jongdae is suddenly feeling very tired. “It’s been this way for generations, to weed out the weak royals when the kingdom was starting out. It was bound to your mother’s family name that unless you accomplished a great and noble deed by the end of the first quarter of your life you would be marked for death. Your mother here had to slay an entire army of demons before random assassins stopped trying to knife her in the back.”

The Queen’s chest puffs out with pride, and Jongdae wants to whine that maybe this isn’t the right time for her to be stealing his thunder.

“And you didn’t think to tell me this sooner? Maybe I’d have played less games and more… I don’t know, actual kingdom saving, monster hunting and all that,” Jongdae says with a frown, because this all sounds a little too far fetched to him. “And why hasn’t anyone thought to try to break the curse before?”

“Well, it didn’t really start out as a curse so much as a way of finding worthy rulers, but now it’s just kind of terrible,” His mother has the grace to look sheepish, and Jongdae just scowls deeper as Baekhyun snickers. “We just figured you’d have done something notable by now and...forgot about it. Oops?”

Jongdae is glad that this isn’t an official audience, it wouldn’t do if the common folk knew that everyone running the Kingdom was well. Like this.

“Wait, so just because Jongdeok is so great and holy and taking every quest in the book he didn’t have some creepy magic setting everyone to kill him?” Jongdae grumbles, because of course this would come around to how great Jongdeok is. He loves his older brother, but he’s sure once he catches wind of this the teasing will be endless. “That’s not fair.”

“Life isn’t fair, Jongdae, as evidenced by the fact that you’re a prince and I am stuck under you,” Baekhyun says, and Jongdae can tell he’s dying to laugh harder at all of this if he wasn’t eyeing the ceiling like the chandelier will fall and crush Jongdae at any moment.

“I wish you were a prince, then there would be someone more useless than me to deal with all of this,” Jongdae grumbles, rolling his eyes when Baekhyun gives him what seems to be an attempt at a comforting pat on the back. He directs his attention back to his parents, who still seem entirely too unconcerned that Jongdae is just hearing about all of this now, giving quarter life crisis a whole new meaning. “So I just need to go consult the quest book and hope for something to fall on my sword that makes me worthy of not getting knives thrown at me by phantom assassins?”

“Well, not just knives sweetheart, but essentially yes,” The King muses, joining Baekhyun in eyeing the chandelier thoughtfully. Jongdae steps away from it warily. “There should be some notable deeds that need done beyond the Dragon Stair. Maybe you can get some information from Chanyeol even, there should be some hordes of Iron Giants or a witch terrorizing some townsfolk that you could help out to convince the gods to let you live.”

“Perfect, sounds easy,” Jongdae says, voice flat as he thinks of the last time he had to go through the Dragon Stair, and he thinks that maybe he should just let the gods judge him as Super Useless and Unworthy. He doesn’t need the five steps of denial, he’s started with acceptance. “I’ll get right to it.”

“That’s the spirit! Take Baekhyun with you, you can finally have your first real adventure,” His mother seems to beam with pride, and it makes Jongdae feel a fraction bad for not having accomplished anything with his life thus far. And then that disappears, because who just lets their family be cursed _and then_ forgets to tell the one cursed about it until there are knives whizzing past their head with alarming regularity. “Don’t forget son, we are always proud of you.”

Baekhyun has a grin on his face that says he’s looking forward to all this that Jongdae is ready to poke off when the chandelier creaks and falls, and for the second time that day Jongdae finds himself crushed under Baekhyun’s grip, muttering his thanks as they stare at the mess of glass and iron surrounding Jongdae in a near perfect circle.

“I knew that was going to happen,” Baekhyun grumbles under his breath, wrinkling his nose and shaking some glass off his sleeves. Jongdae wonders if he listens hard enough, will he hear the gods laughing at him? Only if they could be heard over his mother’s wince, of course. “Told you that you need me.”

“But maybe the sooner you leave the better.”

 

 

 

 

 

Jongdae has known about the Dragon Stair almost as long as he’s known Baekhyun, which is to say a very very long time.

Somehow though, standing in front of it never gets any less daunting, and he eyes the deep darkness with some wariness. The Stair is the quickest way to travel discreetly out of the Crown City despite its general creepiness and teeming with magical creatures, if only due to the fact that only those in the royal family know the way to the entrance.

And apparently mystical assassins, Jongdae grumbles to himself as he brushes off his hood from the tumble he took up the path after Baekhyun had to tackle him to avoid the sudden rain of arrows, which doesn’t even make sense given the fact that they’ve been underground the entire time. He’s really not enjoying all of this magical curse business.

He stands cloaked in front of the entrance with Baekhyun back at his side and a list of quests tucked away in his pocket to look at once he makes it to the other side of the stairs, assuming that Jongdeok left a few noteworthy ones for him when he finished his adventuring phase. He hopes Chanyeol won’t play hard to get and will actually be helpful instead of just giving Jongdae riddles to solve, his patron dragon has always been slightly more difficult than most, certainly more so than his Jongdeok’s or his parent’s.

It gives him a strong flashback of getting sent into the stair to find Chanyeol in the first place when he had just come of age twelve years ago, running around shrieking in the dark until he ran headlong into the gangly dragon, still somewhat traumatized by the sheer size of Chanyeol’s ears and teeth as he remembers tumbling back out the entrance to the amusement of everyone involved in the ceremony. They say the fates are the one that choose your guiding dragon, but Jongdae thinks that the fates might really have a sense of humor on this one, since Chanyeol only ever shows up to tease him.

He has also never managed to not make a fool of himself whenever Chanyeol is involved, and he somehow doubts that this will be any different, as this whole quest business seems bent on making Jongdae play the fool. The fact that Chanyeol definitely enjoys messing with Jongdae doesn’t really help, and he’s sure adding Baekhyun to the equation is just asking for them all to go rolling out the other side of the Stair and off a cliff, or something.

He knocks on a stalagmite as they step through the entrance, just to be sure he doesn’t jinx himself. He’s not up for taking any chances at this point, and wonders if he should have brought along some charms for the trip.

“Well, let’s get this over with then before a boulder tries to crush us,” Jongdae sighs, letting Baekhyun get a good grip on his hood as they and he wishes that he had a tracker to find where his dragon was hiding, but the likelihood of Chanyeol coming out before he feels like it isn’t likely anyway. They’re better off trying to find the closest town on the other side of the Stair and working their way through the outer territories on their own from there.

“Tries to crush you, you mean, I don’t recall being a part of this curse,” Baekhyun shrugs, groping around the walls with his free hand until he finds an unlit torch, lighting it somewhat uncoordinatedly and nearly catching the both of them on fire in the process. Jongdae would call it ultimate irony if Baekhyun was the one that ended up killing him.

Jongdae squints down the winding stairs and tries to remember how long it takes to get to the great clearing in the center where the dragons reside, but his memories of this place are always somewhat blurred, as ever changing as it is. The last time he was in here he ran blind for what felt like hours before making any progress.

He wonders if maybe he should just hide in the Stair for the rest of his life, but that would probably make him a terrible protagonist. Thus he soldiers on, Baekhyun holding the torch high enough that they both can make their way farther belowground.

“You’re basically cursed to be with me, it’s close enough,” Jongdae says, wanting to throw a grin over his shoulder but too afraid of tumbling down infinite stairs to risk it. He’s sure Baekhyun knows it’s what he wants to do, anyway. “I’ll make sure to pull you under the boulder with me so you won’t feel left out.”

“Oh, His Royal Highness is so very benevolent and generous, but I think I’ll pass on that one,” Baekhyun says, and Jongdae doesn’t bother holding back a snicker. He’s really glad he doesn’t have to make the journey alone, he’s surprised the family curse doesn’t specify he has to kill a hundred demons with a blindfold on and only a stick to defend himself with to break it. Maybe that was the original version, and modern times have edited to be easier. Not that anyone would have told him about it anyway, because why bother telling poor Jongdae of his imminent demise? His family is going to hear about this for years if Jongdae lives to tell the tale.

They lapse into easy silence as the stairs seem to multiply, and Jongdae really can’t tell how much time passes before the scenery begins to slowly change and lighten a bit. He squints in the hopes of seeing the great clearing, that maybe some of the other dragons will be around so he can ask about where Chanyeol is, but to his surprise there is no sign of the stairs ending, just what seems to be like….fire? Coming towards them at an alarming rate.

“I don’t know how to save us from this one,” Baekhyun squeaks as Jongdae gapes at the growing fireball coming up the stairs, because how is this supposed to be fair. He’s not magic, he can’t fight this kind of thing and he wants to tell the fates that he’s really trying here and won’t get anything done if they keep trying to kill him. Aren’t there points for effort? “I don’t want those to be my last words, Jongdae!”

“Beggars can’t be choosers!”

“Those are going to be yours!!”

Before Jongdae can grit out some more regrettable possible last words at Baekhyun, the torch hits the ground with a clatter and Jongdae wants to snap at him that that isn’t going to help their imminent death by roasting when the world turns upside down.

The fireball whizzes past Jongdae’s eyebrows, barely avoiding singing his bangs, and the next thing he knows the world goes incredibly dark as they fly at breakneck speed through the winding path of Stair, Jongdae barely noticing as they begin to ascend instead of descend and skip the clearing entirely, rather preoccupied with trying not to lose his breakfast.

He hates flying, but flying upside down is even worse. Baekhyun is limp as a ragdoll next to him when he squints, and Jongdae is sure that he’s going to actually be the one throwing up when he wakes up. That won’t be fun to deal with.

As the path lightens the closer they come to the aboveground, there’s only one dragon who would go through the trouble of saving Jongdae, prince or not.

Sure enough, Chanyeol’s toothy grin reflects in the low light, and Jongdae would smack him on the leg if it wouldn’t end with him being dropped onto the stairs to fall all the way back to the beginning. Quests aren’t supposed to have you go backwards, so Jongdae resigns himself to having a brief stint as a limp ragdoll in Chanyeol’s grip.

At least until the tunnel erupts into sudden light, Jongdae and Baekhyun dumped unceremoniously into the grass outside of the exit to the Stair as Chanyeol shines his grin on them. Mostly Jongdae as Baekhyun stays facedown in the soil, but Jongdae figures he’ll deal with that momentarily. There are bigger fish to fry here.

Or in this case, dragons.

“Chanyeol!” Jongdae spits out around a mouthful of grass, possibly the happiest he has ever been in his life to see the dragon, which isn’t really saying a lot at this point. “Not to look the gift dragon in the mouth, but did you really have to grab us by our ankles?”

“Absolutely,” Chanyeol says, grin staying somewhat unnervingly the same as he picks a blade of grass from the ground to stick between his teeth, slapping Baekhyun on the back with his tail until he starts hacking into the dirt. “It seemed appropriate at the time, wanted to make sure you got the full near death experience down.”

Jongdae chooses to ignore that this means Chanyeol was probably just watching them trip their way down the stairs for unknown amounts of time. It’s bright outside, but that doesn’t really give him a clue on how long they were down there.

“Believe me, I’ve been having those far too frequently recently,” Jongdae sighs, picking grass out of Baekhyun’s hair as he sputters, checking his belt to make sure his sword and knives are still secured after the impromptu dragon flight. “It’s actually part of why I was looking for you in the first place. I need your help, and being my patron dragon and all, you have to you know… help me. And how long were we in there anyway? We never even made it to the clearing.”

“Maybe if you say please?” One of Chanyeol’s long ears twitches, and Jongdae huffs. Magical creatures, always beating around the bush. “It’s been maybe a month? So you should probably get to asking me what you need so I can give you a nice cryptic answer before winter comes. Who knows how much more time you have before you just combust.”

“ _A month_?” Baekhyun parrots, finally spitting the last of the soil out of his mouth and looking about as disgruntled as Jongdae feels. He hates magic realms, time always gets so blurry in them. “Who knows how many great questing opportunities we lost in that time? Get out the list, Jongdae.”

“Bold of you to assume that I know the state of all the evils in the kingdom,” Chanyeol’s ever present smile goes lopsided, sitting back on his haunches and tilting his head deftly to avoid the rock Baekhyun halfheartedly tosses at him. “But you can give me a shot and I’ll try my best.”

“Of course you already know what is going on,” Jongdae grumbles, fishing for the list in his pouch and clearing his throat before giving reading the bullets aloud. “I need something heroic and great deed-y enough to stop the forces of nature from trying to weed me out. Has the goblin infestation at the east cliffside already been taken care of?”

“Yeah, Prince Jongdeok cleaned it out about two weeks ago.”

“And he _knows_ I’m doing this,” Jongdae grumbles, because of course this is what happens to him. Goblins are a sure bet for greatness, and yet his brother has swooped in and stolen the glory from him yet again. This is why he stuck to palace work before this. “How about the golems in the Screaming Mountains?”

“Gone, moved on to the Beyond last year.”

“The wraiths in Tomb Alistair?” Baekhyun chimes in, reading over Jongdae’s shoulder as Jongdae scratches out line after line on the list. The sweat on his brow increases with each denial from Chanyeol, and he begins to think about using the back of the list to plot out his will.

“Exorcised by the priests already,” Chanyeol says, unfazed when one of the great trees nearby begins to creak eerily, calmly unleashing a stream of lava from his mouth when it begins to fall with a trajectory set on Jongdae’s head. He wants to yell at the sky that he’s really trying here, so a break would be appreciated. “You’re welcome, again.”

He doesn’t bother replying, patting Chanyeol’s tail instead and continuing through the list, growing increasingly desperate as it nears the end.

“Is Princess Yerim still trapped in the Insurmountable Tower?” He reads the last line with some hesitation, because rescuing princesses is really edging on too much of a fairy tale cliche for his liking. But at this point, he’ll take anything.

“Nope, she got tired of waiting around and rescued herself last week. Quite the sight, didn’t even call on any dragons for help,” Chanyeol muses, and Jongdae wants to pull his hair out. Baekhyun pulls his hand away at the last minute, and Jongdae thinks his future self should probably thank his friend for saving him from pattern baldness. “What other options do you have?”

“That was the end of the list,” Jongdae sighs, and throws the paper off into the wind dramatically. He feels he’s entitled to some drama, as likely the window will blow the paper back into his mouth and he’ll choke on it, or something. Here lies Prince Jongdae, choked to death by his own uselessness.

“Wow, things are looking pretty dire for you then, huh,” Chanyeol says, seemingly unconcerned and not helping the situation whatsoever. Jongdae wonders who it was that ever said magical creatures can solve all your problems.

“You’re useless,” Jongdae gripes, sitting down on the ground harshly and resigning himself to his fate of an early death. At least he’ll always be known as young and beautiful. “Are things like this what brought on the old dragon hunts in the first place?”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes and huffs a small fireball at Jongdae’s feet. Jongdae doesn’t bother moving his feet, it’s just as likely that the ground will drop out from under him at any moment.

“Now that’s just victim blaming,” Baekhyun tuts, and Jongdae wants to ask him whose side he is even on anymore. He gets a consoling pat on the head for the glare he gives Baekhyun, and snaps his teeth at Baekhyun’s hand halfheartedly.

“And rude, I didn’t say that I didn’t have any ideas, just that things look bad,” Chanyeol shrugs and starts to pick at his talons, smile seeming to grow toothier at Baekhyun’s attempts at petting Jongdae’s head without getting his hand bitten. “You look bad too, Jongdae. Might want to try a bath next time you get to town.”

“Can you please just tell me what to do then I can go save myself from death?” Jongdae grumbles, and he thinks he might be a bit too whiny to be a protagonist of this kind of story. “Speaking of, why aren’t there any convenient and attractive princes lining up to save me from this fate? If my life is going full fairy tale, shouldn’t I at least get the benefit of being saved?”

“Sometimes you have to save yourself, be your own handsome prince,” Chanyeol says, and Baekhyun nods along sagely. Jongdae is so tired of them, he doesn’t need to learn lessons and morals, he just needs to not die. He’s about to say as much when Chanyeol waves him off with a claw, nearly taking his head off in the process. “But as I was trying to say, there has recently been tell of a witch living down in the valley that could need taken care of.”

“A witch?” Jongdae says, and tries to think if anyone back at the castle had mentioned any witches terrorizing local communities. He draws a blank, and Baekhyun shrugs in agreement when he looks at him to see if maybe the whole promise of death had just made him forget. “So if I kill this witch and free the villagers or whatever then that will be great enough to lift the curse?”

“Something like that,” Chanyeol’s smile seems to grow bigger as he talks and takes in Jongdae’s growing frown, and Jongdae wishes that he wouldn’t speak in riddles. He appreciates straightforward answers, and something tells him that Chanyeol knows a lot more about all this than he is letting on. Magical creatures, at it again with the roundabout answers. “Just go take care of him, that should be a great enough deed on its own.”

“Fine then, we’re on it,” Baekhyun says when Jongdae gives no indication of answering, busy wondering how he’s supposed to take on a magic user when he knows jack shit about spells, more of a hands on type of guy in his weapon wielding. Things aren’t really looking any better, and he half expects a bolt of lightning to strike him now before he can even begin the quest properly. “Just take us to where this valley is and we’ll do some good old fashion witch hunting.”

“Oh, I’m not coming,” Chanyeol seems surprised that Baekhyun would even suggest something so crazy, and Jongdae snorts, Gods forbid he got any actual help with this. “I’ll just drop you off on the plains to the North, you can’t miss the opening to the valley from there. This is something for Jongdae to do himself. With you too, I guess, since you two are practically one person anyway. I’ll just be watching from the shadows when you need me, the usual magical guardian things.”

“You’re a terrible magical guardian,” Jongdae grumbles feeling a bit wary of the glint in Chanyeol’s eyes. Something tells him this isn’t going to go very well for him. “Are those really the only clues you’re going to give me?”

“Well, no time to waste now,” Chanyeol rolls his shoulders and reaches out for Jongdae as he scrambles up, just missing the tree that suddenly falls in the space that Jongdae had been occupying, catching Baekhyun in his other arm and beating his wings to get them off the ground. “Let’s get you two to your destinies!”

Chanyeol does a loop as soon as they’re high enough in the sky, and Jongdae knows he’s already turning green as he watches Baekhyun goes limp.

He really hates flying. And dragons.

Especially his dragon.

 

 

 

 

 

Jongdae doesn’t want to say he’s pouting, but to any onlooker it probably definitely looks that way.

He would prefer to say he’s brooding, but he thinks the dramatic effect would be ruined to any onlooker as soon as they take in the entire picture and see the added scenery Baekhyun puking off to the side of the cliff, which Jongdae has been semi occupied in watching ever since Baekhyun woke up shortly after landing.

It’s been this way since Chanyeol dropped them off moments ago, giving a cheery wave after dumping them both at the edge of the desert, within spitting distance of what seems to be an ominous looking cliff and announcing that down below is the valley that they’re looking for before saluting and flying off to ominously watch over them.

The rest is up to Jongdae.

“Of course it is! And how are we supposed to get down there, pray tell,” Jongdae mutters to himself, eyeing the nearby cactus warily as it is the only thing that seems able to bring him an early death in the near vicinity. Baekhyun wipes the back of his mouth and shrugs, and Jongdae buries his head in his knees.

“I don’t know, but I really hope that’s all the flying we’ll have for this adventure,” Baekhyun spits once more into the dirt, gross, and sits down heavily next to Jongdae. If Jongdae squints hard enough, he can make out the tips of treetops further inland of the cliff, and he wonders just how long it will take to get down there.

Also how.

Also, how he is supposed to do that without falling into the deep dark abyss and dying, which is probably the next murder attempt the fates have planned for him.

There’s a long moment of silence, and a tumbleweed, that passes as Jongdae tries to will an answer to fall from the sky and tell him how he is supposed to accomplish any of this.

“Well, look on the bright side,” Baekhyun says, shooting Jongdae a bright smile that seems slightly at odds with how sulky Jongdae feels right now, “At least we have each other, right?”

“Yeah,” Jongdae mumbles, but still bumps his shoulder against Baekhyun’s, squirming away when Baekhyun mimes wiping his mouth on Jongdae’s sleeve. Even if Baekhyun is gross there really is no one else Jongdae would rather go on an adventure with. “There could be worse company to have around for my funeral, I suppose.”

“That’s the spirit,” Baekhyun grins, and Jongdae shoots back a grin that is maybe only ten shades less of its usual brightness, and he thinks maybe everything will turn out alright. Though he is wondering if he hears a faint buzzing sound in the distance, or if the lack of water and weird time skip time on the Dragon Stair has been getting to him. “Hey, do you hear that?”

Not imagining it then.

“I was just wondering if I was hallucinating that,” Jongdae says and frowns, because that can’t be anything good. It’s definitely too loud to be just Chanyeol flying back to get them, and he squints over his shoulder at the expanse of sand to try and see if he’ll get a peek of whatever terrible thing is coming for them before it happens. He should probably try moving, but he’s honestly just tired. “Should we just lie back and take it?”

“Uh, I think we’re gonna have to,” Baekhyun says, quietly, which already has Jongdae worried, because if Baekhyun is being quiet then there is definitely a loud reason behind it. He doesn’t even want to turn and look at whatever Baekhyun is most likely referring to, but Baekhyun makes the decision for him when he twists Jongdae’s head forcibly into what had previously been bare expanse of desert. Which is now looking a hell of a lot more black and loud.

“What is that,” Jongdae says flatly and blinks hard, but the black mass seems to only grow larger and louder the longer he stares, and he really can’t muster up the energy to try and run from this one. The only option they have seems to be running off a cliff anyway, and Jongdae will take his chances with whatever this is over hurling himself into the abyss any day. Baekhyun doesn’t seem to agree, yanking Jongdae up by his armpits and dragging him over to the cliffside.

“If the fire was bad then this is a hundred times worse,” Baekhyun’s eyes are saucers as he takes in the ever growing mass, which Jongdae can now identify as not demons, but birds. Lots and lots of birds coming towards them at an unholy speed. “I think the only way away from this is down, Jongdae.”

“No way!” Jongdae digs his feet into the sand, ignoring Baekhyun’s grunt as they both come to a stop, having to yell to be heard over the beating of the birds’ wings. “It’s just birds, right? Can’t we just swing our swords around and hope for the best?”

“Now is not the time to develop a fear of heights,” Baekhyun gives a useless tug at Jongdae’s arms in an attempt to get him closer to the cliff. Baekhyun might be stronger, but Jongdae prides himself on his immovability when he doesn’t want to do something. And he’ll take his chances with birds, possibly ravens, before he goes cliff diving. “And you literally can’t fight anything like that, how are you supposed to kill a witch thinking like that? Are you just going to go in and throw your sword like a javelin next?”

“Maybe I will,” Jongdae shouts back, and wow, the birds are looking a lot scarier the closer they get. He casts a nervous look to the trees below, giving Baekhyun enough leeway to pull him a bit closer to the edge while he’s distracted. “But I’m not going to be fighting anything if I fall off a cliff and die!”

“You’re so useless,” Baekhyun gripes, inches from the edge himself and looking somewhat green again. Jongdae really hopes the last thing that happens to him before he dies isn’t Baekhyun puking on him, though that would be a good metaphor for the last few hours and apparent month. “Shouldn’t Chanyeol come save us by now?”

“He’s even more useless than me, so probably not,” Jongdae mumbles under what now sounds like a dull roar. A black blur whizzes past his head, and he takes it all back, birds are terrifying.“You might want to start swinging that sword!”

Baekhyun opens his mouth to yell back a reply, and a raven flies straight into his mouth.

Jongdae wants to laugh, because he really does look ridiculous, but the next thing he knows the mass hits them and carries them both over the ledge, hands fumbling for Baekhyun through the mass of feathers.

He screams, and thinks one last thought before mercifully passing out.

Fairy tales suck.

 

 

 

 

 

Jongdae wakes up to a mouthful of dirt, and wonders if this is supposed to be heaven. Has blissful failure finally come for him and let him rest?

It has been sorely talked up if that’s the case.

He turns his head to have less of a chance of eating more dirt and almost has a heart attack when a squawk sounds from above his head.

It would have been somewhat appropriate if he had had a heart attack then and there though, though it would have been rather anticlimactic considering the adventure he’s supposed to be on. He snorts, and glares at the raven that just removed itself from his hair, looking up and taking in the fact that all he can see are trees.

It would appear he’s at the bottom of the cliff afterall, and he groans at the thought of having to admit to Baekhyun that he was right afterall, and maybe they should have just jumped in the first place. Or maybe the birds saved them and he’s right, but either way it’s going to be a loud argument.

Wait. _Baekhyun_.

Jongdae whips his head around and finds nothing but tree trunks and the single raven to greet him. He glares, and the bird gives another caw.

“What did you guys do with Baekhyun,” Jongdae narrows his eyes, trying for his most intimidating and commanding royalty voice, which probably sounds mediocre at best. Probably something else that Jongdeok is better at than him, if he’d been here the ravens would probably have already made him their new god and created a festival in his honor.

As is, the bird just stares at him.

“I don’t know why I expected anything else,” Jongdae says, attempting to dislodge some of the dirt from his pants as he stands, somewhat amazed that he hasn’t broken every bone in his body after their strange bird induced cliff diving experience. He walks forward, because he doesn’t really have any other ideas, and rolls his eyes when the bird hops along beside him. “Are you just going to follow me, little magic bird? No answers to give? Just going to let me look like a crazy person?”

The raven doesn’t even dignify him with a caw this time, simply hopping along as Jongdae pushes his way through the greenery, and he sighs. He hopes that he’ll get to a village soon so he can at least ask about the birds, and maybe find Baekhyun in the process. He also hopes no one comes from the sky to kill him in the meanwhile, because finding his best friend is a pretty important side quest he thinks.

“Talking to birds now, huh? Most people would think that looks pretty crazy, Jongdae” A too familiar voice sounds from above Jongdae’s head, and he has half a mind to chuck a dagger upwards, because seriously, patron dragons are supposed to help their charges, not let them get thrown off cliffs by weird bird plagues. “Chin up, you’re almost there! You found the entrance to the valley and everything.”

Chanyeol grins widely when Jongdae looks up at him, perched on a wide tree branch somewhat wisely out of Jongdae’s reach.

“No thanks to you,” Jongdae huffs, reaching for the raven and ignoring the great squawk it gives when he picks it up to wave at Chanyeol. “You couldn’t have just flown us down here? There isn’t even an _us_ anymore since Baekhyun has apparently been carried off to birdland.”

“No, he didn’t get carried nearly that far,” Chanyeol seems amused, and Jongdae wishes he was an omniscient being so he could be unconcerned about all this too. The bird begins incessantly pecking Jongdae’s wrist, and he can’t even bring himself to care. “You just need to do some of this on your own, you know? You’ll find him soon enough. But you might want to hurry up a bit, winter always hits fast in the valley.”

“You really can’t explain any of this a little better?” Jongdae says, finally letting the raven go to give Chanyeol some choice hand gestures, which seems to only make the dragon grin bigger. Ass. “Not even a handy map of where I could find this witch before I freeze to death?”

“Just follow your heart!” Chanyeol says, and Jongdae looks at him like he’s a lunatic. What does heart have to do with any of this? “And I’m not kidding about winter, you really do want to get a move on.”

“Get a move on, he says,” Jongdae parrots to the raven, before looking back to address Chanyeol again, only to find the branch empty. He sighs, but doesn’t know why he expected anything different, rule 5621 of mythical creatures, thou must disappear after giving properly cryptic advice to their charge. “Well, it’s just you and me then, I guess.”

The bird stares up at the sky, gives a caw, and flies away. Jongdae stares up to the sky to scream again, and promptly puts his head in his hands again, because _of course_ this is what Chanyeol meant.

“This gives taking it in the face a whole new meaning,” He mumbles to himself, and wonders if all of this is really worth it.

He closes his eyes just before the blanket of snow slaps him in the face.

 

 

Jongdae has never liked winter much.

He dislikes this sudden winter even more.

His clothes aren’t really suited to the occasion, for one, pant legs soaked where the snow reaches his shins, and he wonders if hypothermia really would be such a bad way to go.

“Chanyeol really wasn’t kidding on the winter thing, was he,” Jongdae mumbles to his feathered companion, who came flying back shortly after Jongdae picked himself up from the sudden snowfall, which as much as he hates to admit it brought him some comfort in these silent hours. Jongdae hasn’t spent a lot of time alone in his life, and this little adventure is forcing him to confront some of these things.

He does wish that this whole journey of self discovery was filled with a little less mortal peril, but what can you do really.

The raven says nothing, predictably, but does give Jongdae a peck on the head to signal that he’s going the wrong way. Again.

He figured this out after setting off backwards from where he was, ready to climb the cliff with his bare hands to find Chanyeol and force him to take him to Baekhyun, and got a head full of a tiny stabbing beak for his trouble. From then on it seemed following the mystical raven was a better idea than dying via slow, prickly death.

“I get it, I get it, this way,” Jongdae says with a sigh, rubbing his arms to try and get some warmth in his system as he treks along. He wonders if he should be making more animal friends along the way, or if that is a princess exclusive perk. Being a prince really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, useless quests filled with the promise of death and even worse, forced character growth, and he isn’t even getting a cute rescuer to save him. “Do you ever wish you were born as something else?”

The raven stays silent, and pecks at him to go up the snow covered hill. Jongdae feels a bit like he’s being mocked.

“I’m being serious,” He says, resigning himself to his fate and climbing up the hill, resigning himself to frost bitten hands along the way. “I know succeeding in this whole great deed thing is supposed to bring me some happy ending where I don’t die and get to have the comfort of saving the kingdom and all, but maybe I don’t want a happy ending. Maybe I just wanted to be a normal guy and here I am, stuck with all this destiny and greatness crap, on the quest for some rainbows that I didn't even ask for. Now I’m stuck in a sudden winter with no help, no friends, and just a bird that won’t even talk with me to guide me around. It seems a little bit cruel, don’t you think?”

The pecking grows a bit more urgent, but Jongdae is occupied trying to climb the hill and keep up with his rant to pay the raven much more mind than necessary.

“You are some kind of magic raven right? There’s no other way to explain the whole giant bird mass thing from earlier, so I think the least you could do is talk to me,” Jongdae nearly goes cross eyed trying to stare at the bird on his head, mindlessly moving his feet to go higher and higher. “Are you a friend of the witch or Chanyeol? Are you just leading me to a quicker death here? Can you _talk to me_ already?”

“Hey, watch out!”

“Oh so you CAN talk!” Jongdae grins in victory, eyes uncrossing slightly as he registers the words that echo in his ear, before realising that it wasn’t the raven talking at all, but an echo from the bottom of the hill.

The bottom.

Of which he has now stepped a precarious foot over the top.

“Oh. Shit,” Jongdae says eloquently, and he registers the raven flying off his hair before he slips and tumbles down the hill rather haphazardly, wondering if the virtue of being on a quest protects him from all the broken bones he should probably have by now, before landing in something decidedly hot and wet. He really doesn’t think his body can take much more of this.

“I wonder how many more elements I can fall into before the gods decide to give me a break,” Jongdae sighs, letting himself sit in the warm water because it is marginally more pleasant than having to endure the cold air, and he closes his eyes for a long moment when he feels the raven land on his head again.

“This is common for you? That’s a bit worrisome,” Jongdae blinks at the sound of another voice, and suddenly remembers that it actually wasn’t the raven talking with him before his tumble down the snowy hill. He scrambles up to blink owlishly at another man sitting adjacent to him, who is looking a bit owlish himself, black hair plastered to his forehead and full lips pursed in a frown. And he’s cute. And significantly less dressed than Jongdae is, sitting in what he now realizes is likely a hot spring likely looking a hot mess. Excellent. “Are you alright there?”

Jongdae feels very not alright, since he’s likely making a dumbass of himself in front of the cute savior he asked fate for, and he’s about to say as much when the raven jumps over to the other man’s head, who gives a sigh like he’s used to this. A small light flickers on in Jongdae’s head, and he points at the raven, meeting its beady eyes.

“Do you know that bird?” Is what he says instead, because that’s definitely a perfectly normal thing to say to a half naked stranger, and he wonders if sleeping in the snow and eating random berries really deteriorated his social skills this much.

“Maybe I do,” The man says, shrugging and shooing the bird off his head, which then disappears with a snap of his fingers. Jongdae blinks, and wonders if he’s hallucinating again. It’s been known to happen to him around attractive people, likely only made worse by the events of recent times. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Honestly?” Jongdae asks, and the man just blinks. Jongdae thinks that he seems awfully calm for Jongdae having literally rolled into what was likely his own quiet moment, so he just decides to let him have it. “Not really. I’m basically on a quest for my own death, my best friend is missing, I’ve been wandering around in this tundra for who knows how long and the bird that just disappeared has been pecking me on my head for literally days. And I’m literally going to die if I don’t find the evil witch of this valley sometime soon and challenge her to a duel, or something.”

Jongdae takes a deep breath at the end of his tirade, and dunks his head underwater once for good measure. The man looks slightly amused when Jongdae emerges again, and Jongdae wishes he could share the sentiment, but he’s a bit occupied feeling sorry for himself.

“I see,” The man says, standing from the water and offering Jongdae a hand. He takes it with some wariness, not really wanting to be back in the cold air but also not wanting to get left behind if someone is actually going to help him. Unless this guy is another one of those cosmic assassins about to knife him in the back, in which case Jongdae is just willing to take it at this point. “It sounds like you’ve had a tough time.”

“You don’t even know the half of it,” Jongdae grumbles, and he has a montage of Chanyeol’s finer moments playing in his head. It isn’t a very pleasant montage. “My name is Jongdae, by the way.”

“Kyungsoo,” Kyungsoo says, still looking a bit owlish, but Jongdae is beginning to think that’s just his default expression. “And I can probably help you out with a few of your problems, but there are a couple flaws in your plan there, Jongdae.”

Kyungsoo may as well be Jongdae’s new knight in shining armor, because this is the most help anyone has offered him since knives started started getting launched at his head a few months ago. It’s also nice to have someone just call him by his name rather than Your Highness, and he thinks it’s sort of fun to just be thought of as another everyman knight on a quest to his death. How exhilarating it is to be common.

And he has a cute boy holding his hand, which is more action than he’s gotten since he tried wooing the Prince of the Sea Kingdom. That unfortunately ended badly after an incident with sashimi. Which he doesn’t really want to remember.

Anyway.

“I’m ready and willing to accept all constructive criticism on this quest,” He says solemnly, letting Kyungsoo drag him through a cleared path in the snow, squinting to see a small cottage ahead on the path. He wonders if he’s close to the village in the valley that Chanyeol talked about, and if Kyungsoo can help him find Baekhyun and the witch, which would really turn around his bad luck so far.

“Not exactly a criticism, but I think your friend is probably the newcomer in town that Minseok wrote about that is working at his tavern, so that’s easily solvable,” Kyungsoo says, and Jongdae blinks. He doesn’t think Baekhyun has done a day of work in his life that hasn’t been trying to keep Jongdae from an untimely death. “And as for the witch, you’re looking at _him_ , unless some new magic user snuck in while I wasn’t looking. I thought the assumption that all witches were women and evil died years ago. Or worse, evil women.”

Kyungsoo frowns, and Jongdae’s brain comes to a halt with information overload. Did Chanyeol set him up? Is he going to die now? Well, better death at the hands of a cute boy than any other death, he supposes.

“I should warn you that I retired from quest helping years ago, if that’s what you’re looking for,” Kyungsoo continues, somewhat unperturbed by Jongdae’s sudden onset of Huge Crisis Mode, and continues dragging him along to the cottage. “So, what kind of false information led you to me, then?”

Jongdae thinks this is probably the part where he should explain about his family curse, and Chanyeol, and the weird bird shuttle, because talking to strangers is always cathartic in a way, but he really just feels a bit overwhelmed with all this information.

“I think I need to lay down,” Is what comes out of his mouth instead of anything useful, and Kyungsoo’s wide eyes get a bit wider when, in an event that has become far too common for him recently, Jongdae face becomes intimately acquainted with a snowdrift.

He can swear he hears the echoing caw of a raven in his ear mocking him before he blacks out.

 

 

 

 

 

The raven is back on his head, and Jongdae knows it.

But he also feels significantly warmer than he has in recent days, so he’s reluctant to open his eyes unless everything he remembers from before his most recent blackout was just another elaborate hallucination. Something like a mirage, but created by the cold instead of the heat, offering him warmth and answers to his questions and cute boys with owl eyes.

He reluctantly blinks his eyes open moments later, half expecting to be face to face with a tree or just a faceful of feathers, but what he gets instead is a wooden ceiling staring back at him. And the tail feathers of the raven, but that can be dealt with later.

His first priority is the warring joy and dread that the events he remembered were in fact not a hallucination, as he is definitely in a warm bed, which can only belong to the apparent witch boy that he met. Who is apparently not evil, so Jongdae has no idea what Chanyeol meant in sending him here when he’s probably going to bring Kyungsoo’s poor house crashing down on the both of them when the fates realize he’s still just being useless and chasing boys, and not actually accomplishing anything great.

He supposes he can’t really just take Kyungsoo’s word on not being evil, because if you were evil, would you really admit it to someone coming to kill you? But in Jongdae’s experience of fairy tales, the villain usually wants to brag about their evilness, and Kyungsoo just doesn’t seem to be the type.

“Kyungsoo isn’t evil, right?” Jongdae’s eyes go a bit cross as he mumbles at the raven, because getting a second opinion is good and wandering through the snowed in forest for days has to give you some kind of closeness. “How am I supposed to fix all this?”

The raven caws, and Jongdae isn’t sure what else he expected, to be honest. Maybe a real answer, but that’s probably asking for too much.

Jongdae is pretty sure that textbook fairy tale villains are supposed to be all mottled and ugly as well, and Kyungsoo definitely doesn’t look the part. Especially now, peeking a head through the door after hearing the raven caw with what looks distinctively like bed hair and a sleep puffy face. Jongdae swoons a little.

Maybe this is why Baekhyun says he’s easy, but Jongdae prefers to think he’s just open to all opportunities of cuteness that come knocking at his door.

“Oh, you’re finally awake,” Kyungsoo blinks, still looking like his default expression is surprise, and the raven disappears from Jongdae’s hair with another snap of Kyungsoo’s fingers, landing on his head instead and nesting in the messy black strands. “Don’t let Ink bother you, he was just worried. Not often my familiar gets attached to other humans. I wondered where he went off too after I sent him to mess with Chanyeol.”

The already tired gears in Jongdae’s head grind to a halt and break irreparably.

“Wait,” Jongdae puts a hand up for his own benefit, not that it really stops Kyungsoo from doing anything except patting Ink on the head and cocking his head at Jongdae. Jongdae eyes a plate of food in Kyungsoo’s hands, and wishes he could save the interrogation for after breakfast, but this is important. And maybe the food is poisoned, so he really should sort things before possibly breaking poisoned bread with a witch. “You know Chanyeol? Like, big dragon that smiles way too much? Loves being cryptic and unhelpful?”

“Of course I know Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo scoffs, like it was foolish to even ask. Jongdae has spent a fair amount of time feeling foolish lately, so it rolls right off him. “He annoys me all the time. It’s a small circle of magic users and magical creatures out there, we all know each other. Anyway, he knows better than to hang around near the valley right before winter hits, so I sent Ink here out to send him a warning message.”

Ink caws, and Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. Jongdae wonders where this one went wrong, because he’s pretty sure that warning message should look like hundreds of ravens carrying him and Baekhyun off into the abyss.

He really should get on finding Baekhyun too.

“What happened instead was he pulled on my magic to manipulate poor Ink and brought you and your friend down here,” Kyungsoo sighs, giving another consoling pat to the restless bird on his head and he sets the plate of food next to Jongdae on the bed, chuckling softly when Jongdae jumps. “So your friend got carried into town and you found your way here to me. So, how do you know Chanyeol and why did he send you down here? We don’t get many visitors, me especially since I don’t live in the village and have the magic infamy to live up to.”

“It’s a long story,” Jongdae mutters, and he wonders if it’s too early to go through his entire backstory or not. Best to get another confirmation before he does. “Are you sure you’re not evil? This bread isn’t poisoned, right?”

Jongdae has a flashback to his taster meeting an untimely end, and gives the bread a discerning look. It still looks like regular old toast.

“Yes, I’m very sure. Trust me, I could make you explode with a very cool magic zap, but I’m more of a green witch,” Kyungsoo smiles, and it looks alarmingly like a heart, flicking a soft looking spark between his fingers for effect. Jongdae thinks make he should be a charms witch, but hears Kyungsoo mutter _whole lot of good it does me in the winter_ under his breath, and then he notices all the plants hanging from the ceiling. He isn’t sure if Kyungsoo can get much quainter. “We have nothing but time here. Can’t really go into town until winter passes either, so I’ll just send Ink out with a message for your friend after you explain to me why I should think _you’re_ not the evil one, since you were apparently coming to kill me and all.”

Oh yeah, Jongdae blanches, he did spill the beans on that one. He thinks now would be a good time for the fates to drop the house on him, if only to save him from thinking about how bad he is at all this heroic quest business.

“Well, this will all sound a bit out there,” Jongdae starts, reaching for a slice of toast, and Kyungsoo snorts. Jongdae can understand why, this is already very far out there. “But I’m a cursed prince, nothing super special there honestly, and the powers that be have been trying to kill me since I turned twenty five since I’m apparently super useless and everyone useless in my family just drops dead, and everyone forgot about how useless I am and didn’t tell me until after the tenth assassination attempt after which me and my best friend set out to try and save me from an early death. Chanyeol is my patron dragon, and just told me there was a witch that needs taken care of and that could take care of the great deed I need to accomplish so everything stops trying to murder me, so I’m here. How is the roof on your house by the way? Not in any danger of caving in, is it?”

Jongdae takes a deep breath at the end of his run-on explanation, and takes a bite of the toast immediately after. It really does sound depressing all strung together like that, but at least the toast doesn’t taste like poison death. More like raspberry jam, which Jongdae vastly prefers over the taste of death and dying.

Kyungsoo blinks, eyebrows furrowing, and Jongdae wonders if maybe that was a bit much to drop on someone all at once, used to magical circumstances or not.

Then he laughs, full and bright, and Jongdae nearly drops the toast in surprise. His brain wars with the idea of shooting heart eyes at Kyungsoo or putting his head back in his hands, so he settles on awkwardly picking at the toast.

“He told you to take care of me?” Kyungsoo covers his mouth with his hand to muffle the laughter, and Jongdae wonders what part of the joke he is missing, the instructions seemed straightforward enough to him. It must show on his face, because Kyungsoo smiles apologetically after his shoulders stop shaking. “That’s rich, and he sends me a prince at that. I’m sorry for laughing, he just really should know better by now even if he knows my weaknesses, this is all just a little too fairy tale-ish for my liking. I’m sorry about your curse, but don’t worry about the roof, I just fixed it last year.”

Jongdae breathes a sigh of relief at that, that’s at least one option out for the list of things that can kill him inside the house, but he really can’t help but agree on the fairy tale thing. He has a rant on happy ever afters all ready for Kyungsoo when Kyungsoo cuts him off, nearly sending Jongdae out of his skin and both of them off the bed when he reaches for Jongdae’s free hand and runs a spark laden finger over Jongdae’s palm.

Saying it feels electric just feels beyond cliche, so Jongdae settles for shoving the entire piece of toast in his mouth at once to avoid thinking about it. His mother would be so proud.

“As long as you’re here, you should be safe from any curse effects though,” Kyungsoo adds on thoughtfully, squinting at Jongdae’s hand like it holds the answers. His nose scrunches as his thumb presses hard on Jongdae’s wrist and the sparks continue dancing over Jongdae’s arm, and Jongdae hopes he lets go soon so he doesn’t have to explain that cute boys touching him sometimes gives him hives. “I have this house charmed so hard black magic wouldn’t even dream of trying to sneak in. You can at least stay until winter ends, then you can collect your friend from the village. You really do have quite the curse on you, though.”

“Ha Ha, tell me about it,” Jongdae says mechanically, because having a war flashback of his near death experiences blend in with the war present of Cute Witch Boy Way Too Close is too much for his half a brain to handle. “You don’t mind just letting me stay here?”

“I should be honored to have a prince in my humble home, shouldn’t I?” Kyungsoo smiles again, and releases Jongdae’s hand, which he promptly uses to stuff another piece of toast in his mouth, because he really doesn’t trust himself not to break out into stronger hives right now. That’d really show fate, look he can be useful, he can woo witches. Because that would definitely work. “But I really don’t mind, it’s usually just me and Ink during the winter months, so you can help me around the house and keep me company. We’ll figure out something for you to break the curse with for when spring comes.”

Jongdae figures Kyungsoo must be either very lonely, very stupid, or an actual angel to be willing to just let Jongdae occupy his house and save his life for the near future. So much for doing things on his own though, and Jongdae frowns a bit.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you busy,” Kyungsoo grins, taking Jongdae’s silence likely as some kind of guilt, which it sort of is, but it’s more of a gay panic. You don’t get nice magic boys offering you their home every day, especially when you’re supposed to be an independent prince saving yourself. He can also think of plenty of ways to keep busy with Kyungsoo, but that is neither here or there.“There’s plenty to do around here.”

Kyungsoo pats his hand again before getting off the bed, little green sparks dancing over Jongdae’s knuckles, and Jongdae squawks.

He promptly blames it on Ink when Kyungsoo raises his eyebrows at him, and Kyungsoo laughs again.

It leaves Jongdae feeling very _once upon a time_ , and he groans.

 

 

 

 

 

Jongdae squints at Baekhyun’s latest letter as Kyungsoo finishes dinner, and wonders what he should say back.

Baekhyun writes back rather consistently, and Jongdae thinks it’s mostly to fill the void that had been their near constant time in each other’s presence up to this point of their lives.

“You’ll see him soon anyway, just draw him a picture so Ink can get back before dinner gets cold,” Kyungsoo calls over his shoulder, Ink cawing in agreement from his spot on Jongdae’s head. Kyungsoo always smiles whenever he sees Ink making himself at home with Jongdae, and Jongdae likes Kyungsoo’s smile, so he tolerates the bird’s strange affections. “I have to say I’m interested in meeting this Baekhyun, he sounds...like something from what Minseok has said.”

What Minseok has said amounts to Baekhyun not understanding that eggs are considered currency here, breaking fifty of them by accident, and been stuck working in the tavern until he’s paid off his egg debt. Jongdae would think it’s hilarious if it weren’t for the fact that he has basically become temporary plant caretaker to pay off his debt of Kyungsoo housing him and keeping him from dying.

He has to admit though, it’s quite nice to not have to worry about death at every turn, and Kyungsoo is an excellent host. He says that having Jongdae around is convenient since it gives him an extra pair of hands to water all the plants and flowers creeping around his house and fills his nearly unused guest bedroom, but Jongdae can tell he’s really having a good time trying to keep Jongdae from killing all of his tiny green children, as Kyungsoo referred to them once when he thought Jongdae wasn’t listening.

He also sends them little encouraging spells when he thinks Jongdae isn’t looking, cooing at them and coaxing them open to grow higher and stronger with soft green sparks, and Jongdae thinks it might very well be the softest thing he’s seen in his life.

Jongdae always has wanted kids, and he would love to be the step father to Kyungsoo’s tiny green children. He keeps that thought to himself, because that is probably weird to say to someone you’ve only known for six weeks, but he digresses. He’s pretty sure if he’s playing by fairy tale rules then he’s justified in having a tiny crush at the very least.

Especially because Kyungsoo actually listens to all the things Jongdae has to say, his thoughts and complaints on all this curse business, his lingering insecurities of not being able to live up to the standard his brother set and the general perils of royalty, and Kyungsoo gives all his words serious consideration before giving Jongdae his thoughts. It’s nice being heard, which is sometimes difficult considering the people around him, and Jongdae isn’t sure how to repay the favor of it.

So he tries to listen to all of Kyungsoo’s nuances too, finds out how he takes his coffee, that he hates mornings, and that he’s lived outside the village all his life, taking over the cottage from his old witch mentor before she decided to take a tour of the seatowns and look for the mermaids of old. Kyungsoo is very animated when talking about all of this, which Jongdae figures out is what happens when Kyungsoo talks about anything that he’s interested in, and it’s all highly endearing.

He’s also the only person Jongdae has ever met who can eat more than him, which Jongdae deeply respects. They could very well be in danger of going through all of Kyungsoo’s food before winter breaks, and Jongdae got a very long discussion about all the possible hazards of trying to use a spell to turn a basil plant into a cow for his trouble when he suggested it to Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo getting a glint in his eye as Ink settled on his head to flap in accordance with every wave of Kyungsoo’s arms and punctuating _that’s so wrong on so many levels. basil? obviously we would try with a squash plant first_.

How is Jongdae supposed to _not_ have a crush on him.

All in all it’s certainly the most normal and domestic Jongdae has felt in his life, mostly used to meals served by kitchen staff and days passed with various meetings and lessons, somewhat regimented beyond when he and Baekhyun used to sneak out of the castle and into town. So looming death aside when he has to leave the nice safe bubble that is Kyungsoo’s house, it’s a nice break. Maybe Chanyeol isn’t so bad for sending him here after all.

“I’m much more interesting, so don’t look too forward to it,” Jongdae says, coming back to his original thought and tapping the quill on the paper before scrawling out a message.

 _dear baek,_ he writes, and pauses, because what is he really supposed to say? _i’m still fine, don’t die while having to do manual labor, it builds character. soo says the snow should clear up next week, so u will finally be graced with my beautiful visage again. i hope ur still ugly. xoxo jongdae_

He really does hope Baekhyun has gotten magically ugly over the past few weeks, because it really wouldn’t do for Kyungsoo to see Baekhyun and fall in love with him at first sight or something. Jongdae is better looking than him right? Handsome enough to make up for his spastic personality? Now is not the time to have a self esteem crisis, but Jongdae’s brain cares little for that, and it leaves Jongdae staring holes in the letter. He should probably try to actually do something about the crush thing, but this isn’t a game he is particularly good at.

“Soo, huh?”

Jongdae nearly jumps out of his skin when Kyungsoo’s voice sounds from behind him, reading the letter from over his shoulder and rolling his eyes before trading out the paper for a plate of noodles, tying the letter to Ink’s leg and shooing him out the window in a small shower of green sparkles. The wonders of magic, Jongdae thinks, and he wonders how the stories manage to leave out all the good witches.

“What, it’s cute, you’re cute, it suits you,” Jongdae says, feeling even bolder than the dark roast coffee Kyungsoo makes him in the mornings to get Jongdae to wake up and stop napping on his shoulder, which is far bonier and uncomfortable than the stories make sleeping on someone’s shoulder to be. Smooth too.

“Very smooth,” Kyungsoo doesn’t need to look at Jongdae for Jongdae to know that he’s rolling his eyes, and he gets a pat on the head for his troubles. Jongdae cringes a bit, because he doesn’t really know if that’s a positive reception or not, but he can tell from Kyungsoo’s side profile that he’s trying not to smile. He needs a copy of Is The Cute Witch I Like Flirting Back With Me: Idiots Edition. “If I didn’t know better I would say you’re really trying to fulfill Chanyeol’s wishes here.”

“His what?” Jongdae blinks, and again wonders what everyone seems to know that he doesn’t. Kyungsoo’s eyes soften a bit, and he flicks Jongdae in the forehead with a spark laden finger, getting a whine in return.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kyungsoo waves a hand dismissively, like he didn’t expect Jongdae to hear him, and Jongdae takes his own turn of eye rolling. One of these days everyone is going to have to stop being so cryptic. “Just eat your vegetables, you’re not going to do any curse breaking on an empty stomach.”

Ink flies back in to give Jongdae the return letter at that moment, a simple and crude drawing of a middle finger. Kyungsoo’s mouth lights up in a heart as he laughs, and he hangs the drawing on the ceiling above the bed in the guest room so Jongdae can see it first thing when he wakes up.

Cute, Jongdae thinks. So cute.

As quickly as winter came, Jongdae thinks it’s somewhat appropriate that it leaves the same way. He wonders if the entire valley has some magic, because one day he wakes up and the snow is simply gone like it never came, baby green grass poking through the ground of Kyungsoo’s yard as he peeks out the window and sun high in the sky.

He wonders if the grass is also Kyungsoo’s children. He’s going to have so many babies to take care of.

Baekhyun is going to be so jealous.

He’s in the middle of fantasizing about he and Kyungsoo’s three thousand plant children and ignoring all princely duties for the rest of his life when Kyungsoo’s bedhead pokes through the door again, Ink nestled on top and flying over to Jongdae when he sees that he’s awake.

“Good morning,” He mumbles, and Jongdae holds back the strong urge to coo. Kyungsoo walks approximately three steps before face planting into Jongdae’s unmade bed, and Jongdae grins, sitting down hard enough beside him that Kyungsoo bounces lowly in the air. “It’s weird how much Ink likes you, he doesn’t like any of my other friends this much.”

“What can I say, I’m likable,” Jongdae grins, not resisting the urge to run his hand through Kyungsoo’s “So you’re admitting we’re friends now?”

Kyungsoo laughs softly, little sparks of magic shocking Jongdae’s fingers when he tugs on Kyungsoo’s hair softly, and Jongdae makes to pull his hand back when Kyungsoo grabs his wrist.

“Something like that,” Kyungsoo says to both questions, turning his head in the sheets so Jongdae’s hand falls to his cheek and holds it there, and he looks so sleepy and adorable that Jongdae thinks he will explode at any moment. He wishes he looked cute in the mornings, but he thinks there’s really no way to wax poetic about his stubble and overgrown curls. Oh, how he wishes though, and he wishes more he could get a look into Kyungsoo’s brain. “But onto more important subjects than stroking your ego, we’re going into town today.”

Jongdae frowns at the change in subject, especially at the thought of trying to figure out how to break the curse again when he was having a good time pretending that wasn’t happening and that he was just in his own little separate reality of trying to woo a cute and kind witch boy and drink lots of hot chocolate. Alas, that isn’t how adventures work he figures, and he really should probably collect Baekhyun again.

Jongdae startles a bit when Kyungsoo’s thumb presses on his wrist, and he realizes he’s probably been zoning out again while still just holding Kyungsoo’s face in his hand, and he laughs nervously while going to pull back. Kyungsoo just smiles though, squeezing Jongdae’s hand once as he rolls off the bed, stretching hard enough that Jongdae can hear the pops of his spine, and it makes him gulp.

“I know I’m really something to take in in the mornings, but get a move on,” Kyungsoo rolls his shoulders, collar bones just peeking out under his shirt, and Jongdae blacks out for a moment. “Spring is here and it’s time to go beyond my little plot of land.”

Jongdae is going to be glad to venture out some, but he can’t say that being locked in this area by an insurmountable waist high snow fence with Kyungsoo was bad. He got to actually use the hot spring instead of falling face first into it for example, and that was another incredibly sweaty experience of keeping his eyes above the belt while they soaked. But he valiantly made it through, because he is a prince of very strong will and high inability to actually make moves, even when the object of his affection was right there and wet and giving him what seemed like positive signals to Jongdae’s steam fried brain.

Fate is extra cruel, he decides.

Jongdae is also aware he is a coward, it’s what got him into this entire mess in the first place.

“How am I not going to trip in a hole and die or something though?” Jongdae shouts through the door after Kyungsoo as he goes about getting dressed, thankful that he and Kyungsoo are basically the same size so he’s been able to steal his clothes as well. “I’m pretty sure the curse has only gotten worse in the time I’ve been hiding away playing house with you. That doesn’t seem like something great to break a curse, at least.”

Kyungsoo’s snort is loud enough that Jongdae hears it from the kitchen, and it makes him grin.

“You’re going to hold onto me the whole time, that’s what you’re going to do,” Kyungsoo pokes his head back in, still looking sleepy but looking vaguely more dressed, hat sitting crooked on his head. Jongdae wanders over to fix it, and doesn’t resist pulling it down over Kyungsoo’s eyes just to have pinching fingers go after his stomach. “If you’re touching me then I should be able to cancel out any cursed magic.”

“So we’re going to hold hands?” Jongdae brightens up considerably, and Kyungsoo just pinches him harder. Oh, it’s all of his dreams coming true at once, this might as well be first base for all the action Jongdae has gotten through the course of this story. “Oh Kyungsoo, you dog, this is moving a little fast don’t you think? You haven’t even promised a dowry for me yet. I want a cow.”

“You’re terrible, and I can see why you got stuck with the family curse,” Kyungsoo grumbles, and Jongdae wants to be righteously offended, but he finds it hard to keep up when Kyungsoo laces their fingers together, snapping his free hand to get a ribbon wrapped around their wrists for good measure. Jongdae has to admit, it looks pretty gay even to him, and he’s never been more thrilled. “Who knew that one day I would be taking care of wayward princes. Oh how Seulgi would laugh if she could see me.”

“I should hope I’m the only wayward prince in your heart,” Jongdae says as Kyungsoo drags him towards the door, stopping only to grab his basket, clicking his tongue so Ink will hop in too instead of nesting on either one of their heads for once.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, but Jongdae doesn’t think he’s imagining how fond the look feels.

“Something like that.”

 

 

 

 

 

The village is a lot busier than Jongdae expected it to be.

His hand is also a lot sweatier than expected, but he guesses he’s never down a marathon three hours hand holding with anyone before in his life. Not that he minds, it’s just something to think about, and keeps him distracted from the fact that he is holding hands with Kyungsoo.

He’s getting soft, and he’s sure that Baekhyun is going to have something to say about it when they finally get to him.

“And there’s an even bigger festival right before the beginning of summer every year, the cow races are really something to see,” Kyungsoo continues on as they get past the entrance of the village, already bustling as vendors begin setting up their stalls in the market and they continue down the path to the tavern. Kyungsoo sells his vegetables here usually he explained on the walk, but today is the festival for the first day of spring so there will be more activities and people than usual. “But there is a honey that only comes around for this one with her winter bees, I want to see her stuff before going back home. If you’re coming back with me, that is.”

“Cow races,” Jongdae repeats, because he really can’t imagine how that one goes. Things sure are more interesting outside of the Crown City. Then he registers the idea of just skipping town with Baekhyun to try and get back on the rails of their adventure and frowns. He doesn’t really want to do that, but he doesn’t think that Kyungsoo is likely to come along with them, as stereotypical as it would be to have a magic user in their party to round out their skills of Baekhyun’s knight-ness and Jongdae’s… prince-ness.

But what a motley crew they could make, and Jongdae briefly fantasizes about slaying a horde of demons and Kyungsoo realizing he’s been in love with how cool Jongdae has been all along, and then Jongdae dips him and kisses him while fireworks light up the sky in the background. And Baekhyun is there off to the side, or something.

“I always bet on Minseok’s cow, always a shoe in,” Kyungsoo continues, interrupting Jongdae’s very important thoughts as the tavern comes into view, squeezing Jongdae’s hand with an added spark of magic to get him to look up ahead. “You should come back and see it sometime.”

“Yeah,” Jongdae answers mechanically as Kyungsoo all but kicks in the door, one hand being occupied by Jongdae’s increasingly sweaty palm and all. He hears Baekhyun yelling before he sees him, and his grin widens a bit. “Hey, you’ll finally get to meet Baekhyun.”

“I’m guessing that’s him?” Kyungsoo smiles a bit at where they can both see Baekhyun arguing with a slightly smaller man, brandishing a dish like it’s a sword and nearly taking a patron’s head off when he turns to the direction of Jongdae’s voice and brightens up considerably, even as the other man has to grab the dish from Baekhyun’s hand to save it from nearly smacking any more people in the face.

“Jongdae!” Baekhyun hops the counter, and the other man who Jongdae can only assume is Minseok gives a mighty sigh that Jongdae can hear even from the entrance. Everything about him seems strong, to be honest. He also remembers Baekhyun’s strength at the last minute, hitting the ground with an oof moments later, landing right on top of Kyungsoo as Baekhyun tackles them both. Not how he wanted his first time on top of Kyungsoo to go, but he’ll take what he can get at this point. “Wow, you’re actually still alive! You have no idea how worried I was after that demon bird dropped me into that stupid pile of eggs and you were gone.”

“Of course I’m alive, who do you think was writing you,” Jongdae rolls his eyes, attempting to get Baekhyun to stop from crushing him and in turn Kyungsoo to death. It wouldn't do him much good to kill his love interest by way of suffocating him to death, though it would give him a very tragic Romeo and Juliet spin when he would likely die immediately after. “Like you have friends besides me out here.”

“I don’t know, I figured you’d get struck by lightning walking into town or something,” Baekhyun shrugs, but mercifully gets off of Jongdae so he doesn’t have to turn his story into a romantic tragedy. Romance still somewhat pending, of course, but he has high hopes. “And I have friends. Minseok is my friend, and he pays me so technically he’s a better friend than you.”

Kyungsoo laughs at that, and Baekhyun seems to finally notice him attached to Jongdae’s arm, Kyungsoo seemingly unperturbed by the near death experience of being crushed by Baekhyun. Jongdae thinks he really must be a keeper if he’s unphased by all of this, and grins a little when Kyungsoo squeezes his hand.

“The infamous witch who has been keeping our dear prince captive then,” Baekhyun peeks over Jongdae’s shoulder and grins at Kyungsoo, shaking his free hand enthusiastically after manhandling his way past Jongdae. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Likewise, though I would say it’s willing captivity considering my magic is keeping the curse at bay,” Kyungsoo smiles, and Jongdae’s hand gets marginally sweatier. He needs to work on this before his hand actually slips out of Kyungsoo’s, somewhat thankful for the tie keeping them together and keeping him alive, but more so keeping them together. He feels a spark dance along his wrist, and blinks at Kyungsoo, realizing he was probably spacing out for Baekhyun’s chatter. “Is there a reason you’re still shaking my hand?”

“You’re holding Jongdae’s, I felt left out,” Baekhyun says easily, and Jongdae wants to use his remaining hand to give him a good slap on the head, but Baekhyun’s _you’re about to get hit_ senses are strong after all these years, and he ducks out of the way at the last minute. Kyungsoo laughs again, and Jongdae thinks his hand may as well be a waterfall. “You have two hands for a reason.”

“And your reason is to wash dishes,” A voice sounds from behind them, and Jongdae gets a feeling of immense satisfaction from watching Baekhyun get pulled up by the back of his shirt by Minseok. Even stronger looking close up, Jongdae notes, so it makes sense that he can throw Baekhyun over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Baekhyun seems used to it, making Jongdae wonder how much he missed here, and just grins as he’s hefted back to the bar. “You can talk when you’re off, you only have a few more days left before your debt is paid off.”

“Oh you say the sweetest things Minseok, I know you’ll miss me,” Baekhyun croons, and Jongdae can physically feel Minseok rolling his eyes, watching with wide eyes as Baekhyun manoeuvres his way down Minseok like a tree, legs ending up wrapped around his waist. It’s impressive, and Jongdae thinks he really must have missed out on something going on here. Baekhyun stage whispers an _isn't he so strong and dreamy_ at them as Minseok deposits him behind the bar, and Jongdae thinks yes, he missed a lot. “Come by when I’m off and we can plan where we’ll go next. I got some good leads from the villagers on a troll that’s in the nearby mountains.”

Jongdae feels the strange frown pull at his lips again thinking about leaving and therefore leaving behind Kyungsoo and the nice little bubble he’s found here in the name of more adventures that will probably kill him, of which he still has a bone to pick with Chanyeol, but Kyungsoo agrees on behalf of the both of them and pulls him back out of the tavern.

Jongdae thinks that as the protagonist of his own story he should probably take a bit more initiative in it, but he doesn’t voice these thoughts and instead lets Kyungsoo drag him back into the market stalls, making a beeline for the honey he’d mentioned earlier.

Ink flies out of the basket when Kyungsoo roots around in it to count his goods to trade, and Kyungsoo clicks his tongue at him to get him to fly out and among the stalls. Jongdae wonders if there’s anything for magical ravens to buy here.

“It really is only sold during this exact festival, so I have to stock up before she runs out,” Kyungsoo explains, making use of Jongdae’s free hand by shoving the basket into it and trading out the multitude of eggs and vegetables inside for honey jars. With the amount of honey toast that he’s seen Kyungsoo eat, he doesn’t blink an eye at how much he’s getting. “Otherwise I have to barter with Minseok for whatever he’s stashed away, and he drives too hard of a bargain. I always have to give up so many pumpkins.”

Jongdae nods along and lets his mind drift as Kyungsoo chats with the girl running the stall and tries some of the other varieties of honey, and he wonders if maybe the point of this whole curse and adventure is for him to actually learn something out of all of this and stop letting all his opportunities in life slip by. Maybe it doesn’t matter if he hasn’t accomplished anything all that great in his life, or if Jongdeok is a better textbook prince or if he doesn’t live up to the legacy his family has set. Maybe he can have his own legacy and fate can go shove it if he just refuses to play along with its games any longer.

The background conversation on the pros and cons of winter and summer bees makes his revelation a bit less dramatic than he thinks it probably should be, but he’ll take a lackluster self revelation over nothing, because he would probably get killed by a troll otherwise.

He really needs to talk to Kyungsoo.

“Are then any ideal places around here to have important conversations?” Jongdae asks Kyungsoo after it’s finally decided that summer bees are superior due to their gigantic size and sweeter honey, and Kyungsoo cocks his head at Jongdae. Jongdae can understand, this is a pretty random time to have a possibly life changing revelation. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Well when you put it like that,” Kyungsoo blinks, and Jongdae tries not to die inside when Kyungsoo uses some creative maneuvering to wipe some of the sweat off of their palms. He feels like a teenager all over again. “There’s a place I can think of.”

Jongdae eyes their intertwined hands and wonders if this is actually going to work. He’s going to need to write a book of his own if that’s the case, all the other fairy tale writers can shove it.

 

 

 

 

 

“Is there a reason you decided to take us up into a tree?”

Jongdae looks to ground some meters below them with some trepidation, legs dangling somewhat precariously over the edge of the thick branch. Kyungsoo seems marginally less concerned, chuckling and knocking their shoulders together.

“I thought it might make you less nervous about talking with me if you were more scared of falling off the bench,” Kyungsoo grins, and Jongdae has to admit that it is solid logic even if he thinks bench is a generous word for the tree branch that they’re sitting on on the overground path outside of the village that runs between the great oaks. “You’re going to ask me to come along with you and Baekhyun to break your curse right?”

“Um,” Jongdae starts, because he wants to get to his actual reasoning feeling this has all dragged on for long enough, but Kyungsoo doesn’t feel the same evidently because he plows on with no heed to Jongdae’s dissent.

“I’m going to have to say no I’m afraid,” Kyungsoo looks sad, and Jongdae panics a bit at the thought of Kyungsoo thinking he was just trying to use him to kill a troll or something. “I really did give up helping on quests a long time ago, my magic just isn’t suited to it, all I can do is give you charms to take with you. But if you still want to have a witch in your life afterwards when you’re back to being a full time prince… I’ll be here?”

Kyungsoo looks painfully nervous, and Jongdae’s heart implodes on itself.

“No no no, I wasn’t going to ask that,” Jongdae squeezes on Kyungsoo’s hand once, and then uses his free one to pull at the knot tying them together, ignoring Kyungsoo’s protest and letting the ribbon flutter down to the ground. “I mean it’s sort of about the curse, but also not really.”

“I mean, there is _one thing_ I haven’t tried to break the curse yet, and if my theory is right then it’ll work,” Jongdae says, trying his best to seem casual but sure that he’s failing at it, focusing most of his energy into keeping a grip on Kyungsoo’s hand and also keeping them from toppling out of the tree. A lot of things for his frazzled brain to keep track of, so he likely looks just as nervous as he feels. “And if it works then I have something else to say too.”

He lets go of Kyungsoo’s hand entirely, and it’s Kyungsoo that nearly sends them both toppling off before any curse magic can take effect in throwing Jongdae off to his death, but Jongdae steadies them both with his hands on Kyungsoo’s shoulders before sliding them up his neck to hold Kyungsoo’s cheeks in his palms. Kyungsoo looks a lot like an owl again, hands holding Jongdae steady on his thighs, and Jongdae chuckles a bit nervously before leaning in to kiss that boy already.

Kyungsoo’s lips are as soft as they look, and Jongdae tries not to pass out from nerves then and there because it would be highly uncool to do during your first kiss with the possible future father of his plant children, but that passes when Kyungsoo’s hands tighten on his pants, eyes closing as he makes the conscious decision to show Jongdae how a real fairy tale kiss is done.

Kyungsoo tastes like the honey he was trying, possibly also all of Jongdae’s hopes and dreams, lips warm enough to chase away any lingering moments of winter on Jongdae’s mind, and he slides his hands up into Kyungsoo’s hair to pull slightly when Kyungsoo’s teeth worry at his bottom lip. He’s thankful for the width of the branch they’re sitting on then when Kyungsoo swings his leg over Jongdae’s, seating himself in Jongdae’s lap to easier sweep his tongue through Jongdae’s mouth, kiss him on the curl at each end of his lips before grinning a heart at Jongdae.

Jongdae thinks that even if the curse isn't broken, his brain might have at least broken in the process.

“I was wondering if you were ever gonna just kiss me,” Kyungsoo says softly, close enough that his lips still brush Jongdae’s when he talks and it makes him want to do nothing else besides kiss Kyungsoo. Who needs princely adventures when you have a witch willing to climb into your lap and kiss you silly, and he punctuates the thought with another quick kiss. “I was waiting for it when we went to the hot spring.”

Jongdae _knew_ he was reading that situation right. Fare thee well the opportunity for hot wet makeouts, maybe another day. Spring is a time for new beginnings, and new places to kiss your...boyfriend? Boyfriend sounds nice. They probably should have this talk at some point, but Jongdae is happy with sweet kisses for now.

No need to plan out their whole future right now, especially if he doesn't know for sure if he's going to see it. Figure his brain would find a way to ruin any moment of happiness he manages to latch onto.

He figures he should test if he’s right or not, and if he’s wrong then at least he has a hell of a kiss to go out on, gently untangling himself from Kyungsoo as much as he really doesn’t want to do it. Kyungsoo makes a noise of alarm, still looking vaguely dazed, but Jongdae pushes him off anyway, and waits for the results of his experiment.

Nothing happens, no lightning from the sky or broken tree branch sending him to his death or mystery assassins raining down knives, only a caw from the leaves above and Ink dropping down on his head as if on cue. It seems appropriate somehow.

"Are you alright with sharing your owner with me?" Jongdae's eyes nearly cross as he speaks softly to the raven, and Ink simply chuffs his feathers. Jongdae laughs, and it feels light as the hand Kyungsoo lays on top of his, the kiss glanced over his cheekbone.

Apparently all it takes to survive your evil curse is a little thinking with your dick instead of your head, he’ll have to remember to write that down. Or maybe change it to thinking with your heart, somewhat more family friendly while still being true.

“True love’s kiss,” He mumbles, reaching out to pull Kyungsoo close again and attempt to gather his wits from where they’ve scattered all over the ground. Or tree, as it stands. Ink caws for added effect. “It’s so corny. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.”

“I can’t believe _I_ didn’t think of it, I’m the magic expert here,” Kyungsoo laughs, leaning his head on Jongdae’s shoulder. Jongdae wonders if maybe it’s time to get off of the tree, but he isn’t really willing to disturb this picture perfect moment. “God, this is stupid. I can’t believe Chanyeol was right, too. Hopefully he just lets it go and doesn't lord it over me forever.”

Jongdae wants to ask what Kyungsoo means, also somewhat not really because he doesn’t want thoughts of Chanyeol to be in his happy kissing Kyungsoo place, but he’s interrupted by the dragon, the myth, the legend himself ambling out of the tree line. God, dragons are the worst.

“Absolutely not,” Chanyeol’s grin is just as bright as Jongdae remembers, and he’s ready to lay into him for letting him not only fall off a whole cliff and lose his best friend in the middle of nowhere, but also have to wander through arctic conditions when he notices Baekhyun sitting up on Chanyeol’s back looking just as thrilled. He drags a hand down his face and sighs. “I will remember it forever and ever and talk about it at your wedding and in front of your plant children.”

“Can we not get ahead of ourselves here,” Jongdae mumbles, and he also kind of wants to ask about how Chanyeol knows about the plant children thing. He will never understand how omniscient magical creatures work. Kyungsoo hasn’t gone running to the hills at hearing it either, which cements Jongdae’s thoughts that they have to be meant to be then. Maybe he should actually plan their whole future and integrate the plant children back into it. “And what do you mean you were right? I definitely had to do all of this by myself.”

“I told you there was a witch that needed taking care of,” Chanyeol shrugs, Baekhyun sliding off his back in the process, and Jongdae just wants to ignore that all of this is happening and ruining his big moment so he does, shooing Ink off his head and down to Baekhyun so he can bury his face in Kyungsoo’s neck. Kyungsoo cards his fingers through Jongdae’s hair consolingly for a moment before pulling them both up to go back down the tree stairs. “Kyungsoo has been living here by himself for too long, and you two were perfect for each other anyway. I said you should try taking care of him and you did. Magical. Everyone knows there’s no greater and braver deed than falling in love and so the curse is broken. I am accepting thank yous at any time.”

“I can’t believe you made out in a tree and no one told me until it was all over,” Baekhyun says, interrupting choice words from Jongdae that was definitely not going to be a thank you, pointing a finger at Jongdae when they finally make it down. Jongdae just grins, because he doesn’t think his face knows how to make any other kind of shape at the moment, still floating somewhere up in the trees and kept down on the ground only by Kyungsoo’s hand holding his again. Not for any magic, but just because he can. “Now when we go back to the castle I’m going to have to make up my own version of the ending since I wasn't around for it. The juiciest part too!”

Jongdae gets hit with a thought as Baekhyun continues to ramble on, Kyungsoo smiling at him indulgently, and that is the burning question of what he’s supposed to do with the future. No other fairy tales seem to offer explanations beyond the coveted kiss, and he thinks he’s really going to need to write a manual for future princes and princesses that run into this issue.

“Would a quest to meet my parents be alright?” Jongdae asks Kyungsoo under his breath, thinking this is all a little fast, but they can figure it all out over the summer, all the fill in the blanks of their relationship. There’s no rush to get back anyway, his family was content to let him go this long, they can wait for him to backtrack true love to boyfriend. “We can do the whole half year thing that other rich royals do, swap between the Crown City and here.”

“Seulgi did say I should get out more before she left,” Kyungsoo mutters to himself, and Jongdae becomes the sun incarnate. He steals a kiss because he can, giving Baekhyun a rude gesture over his shoulder when he scoffs, Chanyeol smacking him with his tail. “I suppose Minseok could watch the house for me while we’re gone. As long as we spend summers here, I can’t miss the cow races.”

“Me either, Minseok promised me a part of his cut when he wins this year,” Baekhyun perks up at the mention of the races too, and Jongdae can only imagine how much Baekhyun saw of the village while he was busy falling in love and becoming the master of his own destiny and all that. Maybe Baekhyun was doing something similar, they really do have a lot of catching up to do.

Jongdae smiles even wider, and wonders if this is the moment they all join hands and sing kum ba yah as the sun sets and the birds sing.

Ink caws, Kyungsoo squeezes his hand, and Jongdae figures that it’s close enough.

Who needs a bland old happy ending after all.

When Kyungsoo holds his hand, Jongdae feels goddamn technicolor.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and making it through all that! I hope you enjoyed it, all of anything is highly appreciated!


End file.
